INDIA Vs SRILANKA   3^rd TEST:

The third test of the JAYPEE cup that was played against Srilanka in the Brabourne Stadium is one of the most memorable tests for all the Indian Cricket fans. The victorious Indian Team (both in the test and the series) will remember this day as they have achieved a great victory and hence have reached their goal which was their dream.

1^st innings:

SRILANKA Batting:

Having won the toss the Srilankan Captain decided to bat first. The openers Parnawithana and Dilshan revealed a splendid performance and scored runs at a very good rate. And when  Parnawithana   lost his wicket the team started to fumble. They lost the skipper Sangakkara, Jayawardena and the in form batsman Samaraveera in quick succession. Then Dilshan started developing an important and valuable partnership with the all rounder Mathews and the former got out at 109 due to poor umpiring. Then there was no huge partnership and hence they finished their first innings at 393. At the end of the first innings the Srilankans were quite happy with their first innings score and they would have satisfied with their performance.

INDIA Bowling:

The pitch had assisted the spinners and seamers a lot. There was good bounce in the track but the seamers didn’t exploit the condition. They couldn’t get any early break through. The spinners Harbhajan and Ojha came to the party and straight away Harbhajan took the wicket of  Parnawithana. Then they maintained the pressure by their consistent line and length, and made the batsman come forward and thereby made the batsman commit mistake and took those precious wicket. Among the fast bowlers Zaheer Khan bowled with intent. The most expected Sreesanth , disappointed all the Indian fans because of his poor line. The hero in the bowling department for the Indian first innings was Harbhajan. He scalped four Srilankan batsmen.

INDIA Batting:

The first innings Indian batting started vigourously with the professional openers Murali Vijay and Sehwag. These two batsmen provided a flamboyant start to Indian batting. The youngster Vijay,who was in place for Gambhir,grabbed his opportunity and displayed a wonderful innings and scored valuable 87 runs. The veteran Sehwag and Dravid(74) then started developing a wonderful partnership (237 runs) which was the highest run partnership for the match. Sehwag displayed a marvelous performance with the bat and scored almost in all parts of the ground and was dismissed at 293. Then Sachin and Laxman contributed by scoring half century. Then the Indian skipper M.S.Dhoni started scoring with his fabulous strokes. And he had partnership with almost all the tail enders and was not out till the end at a score of 100. Finally India declared at a score of 726/9.

SRILANKA  Bowling:

The Srilankan bowlers were not able to perform well. They struggled to bowl to the aggressive Sehwag. Sehwag didn’t allow the bowlers to settle and also they set a defensive fielding which allowed the batsman to settle . Even the legendary bowler Mutthiah Muralidaran, who is playing his last test series in India is not able to bowl at a good length. They conceded a lot of runs. The seamers were not effective. Herath couldn’t find his rhythm. After bowling almost 164 overs the had taken 9 wickets. The pick of the bowlers was Muralidaran, although he was not at his best. He took four wickets including the wicket of Sehwag.

2^nd Innings:

SRILANKA Batting:

Trailing by such a Himalayan score the openers started off well. Especially the left hander Parnawithana was very positive and efficient in his approach. Dilshan was the first one to be dismissed. Then they had  a very useful partnership between Parnawithana(54) and the skipper Sangakkara . Later the former was dismissed by Sreesanth ant then the Srilankans faced the crisis as Mahela Jayawardena, Thilan Samaraweera and Angelo Mathews fell without scoring much. The skipper again started developing partnership with the wicket keeper Prasanna Jayawardena and then with Nuwan Kulasekara. But these partnaership were not enough as they started their innings trailing by 333. The skipper  Sangakkara played a valuable and sensible innings and was dismissed at 137 by Zaheer khan.

INDIA Bowling:

As the pressure was entirely on the Srilankans the Indian bowlers were able to find their rhythm. They attacked the stumps and the spearhead Zaheer Khan used the bounce in the pitch in a wonderful manner. The spinners Harbhajan and Ojha picked up two wickets each. They were really accurate. They knew the Srilankans will be defensive and hence targeted the stumps and they succeeded. The pick of the bowlers was Zaheer khan. He took five Srilankan wickets. He bowled a lot of out swingers and bouncers and made the batsman play at back foot and made the Srilankans to struggle.

Thus right from the start of the first day, each day belonged to team India. Indians outplayed Srilankans in all departments and hence dominated them. Sehwag was declared as both Man of the Match and Man of the Series.

HISTORY REWRITTEN:

The result of this match has created a numerous records. They are:

• For the first time in the history of cricket, team India is the no.1 team in the test rankings. India played its first test 77 years ago.
• Dhoni became the first Indian captain to lead the most number of matches without facing any defeat (He has  lead 10 matches without facing defeat).
• Sehwag has scored the fastest 250
• Sehwag became the third fastest Indian to score the 6000 runs in test cricket (In 117 innings.) The first two players are Gavaskar and Tendulkar.
• Dhoni had taken 100 test catches.
• Muralidaran  has gone past Imran Khan’s record of taking most number of test wickets against India in India